Reading Response #2 to Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

       I am currently reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.  So far I am really enjoying it.  It is really intriguing and I can't wait to see what happens next.  This book is about a girl who was killed in a car accident.  She "relived" the day of her death everyday for about a week.  The day would always start the same but go differently depending on how her actions changed.  This day was basically repeating itself with drastically different outcomes each time.  I think this was happening in order to help teach Samantha a lesson.  She realized how much what she did affected other people.  She learned that she needed to change her actions.  For example, Samantha and her friends had been bullying this one girl, Juliet Sykes, for years.  They called her names and harassed her a lot.  Then on the day of Sam's death, Juliet would kill herself.  The different way that Samantha acted affected the way she would kill herself.  Samantha learned that she needed to figure out a way to make it right with Juliet and to force her friends to stop bullying her and see what a a kind, beautiful person she is in order to save her life.
       I really like this book because it talks about the issue of bullying in a more interesting way that really connects with the reader.  I think it is books with messages like these that can really make a difference in the way people treat each other and in our society.  It also shows just how drastic of measures is needed to get people to change their ways.  I mean Samantha had to die and repeat this one day over seven times in order to realize how terrible a person she was being to some people.  It took so much just to get her to even think about acting differently.  I predict that she will wake up from this repetition once she has made things right.  I cannot wait to see what will happen next.